A differential is a gear train that rotationally connects three shafts to transfer rotational motion. For example, the three shafts may include a drive shaft which is typical coupled to a transmission and pair of wheel drive shafts. A typical property of a differential is that the angular velocity of one shaft is the average of the angular velocities of the others, or a fixed multiple of that average. Moreover a differential may allow an outer wheel shaft drive to rotate faster than the inner drive wheel during a turn. A locking differential is a variation of a standard differential. A locking differential is designed to selectively “lock” rotation of two of the shafts of the differential together as if on a common shaft. This causes wheels coupled to the respective shafts to turn in unison regardless of the traction (or the lack thereof) available to either wheel individually. As vehicles are designed to weigh less and become more compact, it is desirable to reduce the size of all components including the differential.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a differential with narrowing packaging.